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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1878)
NO. 7. TIM5 INKUTUNOK AND UKsl'ONSlllll.lTY OK THK AMKHKUN I'UKSS. 1131 THE INFLUENCE AND RESPONSI BILITY OF THE AMEIUGA N PRESS. Tho nineteenth century has not been without a partial revolution in the mnn. nors iintl intellectual development of so. cicty If durability and statoliness of ar tifico, were the characteristics of a pist age, utility and symmetry are distinctly modern. If the architect formerly studied the more masculine beauty of the Doric structure, ho now having added strcnght to beauty, traces more accurately the cllcmi. nuto graces of the Corinthian. If the cou rier formerly dashed along the New Eng. land highway, he now yields to the advan tages of electric speech. These changes, thesa social revolu. lions arc emblems of a nation's progress. Society then to be progressive must bo active. Its currents of industry are as essential to maintain its health, as the cur rents of the sea to maintain Die purity of its waters. Then, when wo look abroad upon tho great sea of American industry, we are led to inquire by what hand those currents of industry arc moved, and by what power they are guided within their proper chan nels. Mysterious it may seem, yet deep within the realms of tho social circlo its works arc visible to the penetrating eye. The printing press is that liand and its inliuence is its power. Though weak in its influence it is already mighty in its youth. It has hurled tyranny from his throne and placed his sceptre in the hands of liberty and freedom. Bigotry and superstition have vanished like the mist. And man in botli body and mind stands comparatively free from the fetlors of former dogmas. Freedom of thought only made way for freedom of speech. The one granted the other was irresistible. Every thoory has now its advocates. Even tho collage has not mistaken the tendency of tho ugo, but boasts of its college journalism as though it drove the largest and most influential quill in the land. Willi us this is decidedly an age of activity and tho -daily newspaper is its characteristic. Tho buyer without tho the latest quotations is out of tho market. The politician without tho latest returns is out of humor. If meat and wine satis lies tho Englishman for dinner, hot broad and a morning paper satisllcs tho amcri. can for breakfast. At the table on the street, in the ofllee, the contents of tho paper is read, masticated and duly swol lowed. When we sec tho necessity of accurate knowledge, when we sec this mania for reading, when wo contemplate the demands of the millions of readers, then only can we realize tho intrinsic value of tho dusty type, hurled promis cuously within its case. If the effects of the stage arc lasting, the effects 'ot the newspaper arc constant. If the stage formerly swayed the minds of a few hundreds, the press now moulds the minds of the millions. Upon those manners and institutions, that rest in tho more immediate control of the citizen, the inliuence of the press is evidently most effectual. If the rostrum has boon tho queen, the press lias been an acknowledged king, that has swayed the destinies of the republic with imperial sway. For placing side by side the ex. tromo views of monarchy and democracy, it has succeeded in tho maintenance of a healthy system of republicanism. If now laws are to be enacted, if reform is to be instigated, if oppression is to be dc nounced and freedom extolled, it is the press, the vox populi, that leads the van, or guards tho rear. If a new movement is contemplated by the statesmen, if a new development of science is to bo utilized, if society in gen oral is to be relieved of its parasites, it is the periodical, the journal, the magazine, and tho newspaper, each with its appeal that must roach tho citizen and his home. Thus do wo see tho magic influence of
